After the meal, Emily and, who Kara assumend were, her parents had gone back into the other room and turned the image screen back on.

Kara had lingered in the eating room. There was a door which led out onto the patch of ground behind the dwelling. She opened the door and stepped out onto the platform which lay beyond. The ground which lay below the platform was covered in very short, thin green leaves, which seemed to be growing directly out of the ground. At the opposite end from the dwelling were three larger plants. They were as tall as the dwelling and had huge thick wooden stems which split off into leaf covered branches.

It was dark now and the Stars were visible. She looked up, trying to see any patterns she regognised, but it all looked different. The pod could have taken her half-way across the Galaxy.

Even though the sun had gone down she still felt its warmth within herself. The night air was cool, but not cold and was filled with innumerable little noises, the movement of the vegitation in the wind, the chirps and rustles of animals, even the distant footsteps and voices of the people.

She felt more different than she ever had. Her senses still seemed sharper than they ever had. She felt like she had been going though life with her eyes and ears closed and now could hear and see for the first time.

She had no idea what could have caused it.

She decided to do a quick hand eye coordination test. She stepped off the platform, onto the ground and picked up a small stone. She turned to face one of the big leafy plants at the other end of the patch of ground. She aimed at one of the low hanging leaves and threw the stone.

There was a whisper and a thunk. The leaf did not seem to have moved at all. She moved closer. Once she got to the leaf she saw that a small hole had been punched through the centre of it. Her eyes went past the leaf, to the thick woody stem of the plant. There was hole in that too. The stone had buried itself about a finger's length into the wood.

Kara felt the wood. It was solid. There was no way she could have thrown the stone that hard.

Casting her eyes around, she spotted a larger rock on the ground. She picked it up and held it in front of herself, then squeezed it as hard as she could. It shattered in the grip.

It wasn't just her senses that had been affected, it seemed that her whole physiology had changed. But why? What could have caused it? Whatever aspect of this world that was causing this change in her, didn't seem to effect the poeple living here.

The people living here... They looked like Kryptonians but who knew what kind of strange biology they might have. Still, the food seemed edible and the air breathable. It seemed like she would be able to survive here. She looked enough like them that they seem to have taken her in as one of their own. What if they found out she was not of this world?

Kara took a deep breath. The first thing she needed to do was to learn how to communicate.

She turned and began walking back to the dwelling. Tomorrow she would sit down with Emily and begin to try to communicate.

Hopefully tomorrow would be as quiet as today had been.

…

The alarm had gone off in the mall's security booth at about two in the morning. Eric had quickly turned off his portable tv and checked the board.

D5, Binder's Electronics.

He grabbed his equipment belt and hurried towards the shop.

Usually when an alarm went off it was just kids messing about, but there had been some thefts.

Eric was kind of hoping it would be thieves. He'd been daydreaming about being a hero since he started this job.

Ariving at the shop, he stopped in shock. The place was trashed. Not only had most of the items been pulled off the shelves, but most had been ripped apart. Bits of wire and plastic covered the floor.

He stepped in, shining his flashlight across the mess. Most of the equipment seemed to have been piled in the center of the store. He walked forward to examine it.

He was reaching for his radio to call for assistance when he noticed that the pile was moving. Was there someone under there? No, that wasn't it. The pile was... standing up?

He stared at the vaguely Human shaped thing in shock. It seemed to regard him for a moment, then lunged forward.

There was a scream, which was quickly cut off.

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